Notifying laid-off workers. Is it enough?

Three cheers for the AFL-CIO and the Democratic state legislature for extending worker notification requirements. For nearly 20 years, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) has required employers to give their workers at least 60 days of advance notice about mass layoffs. Working families can use this time to adjust and start looking for new employment.

60 days often isn't enough time to give laid-off workers a chance to find new employment or retrain for a new career. They need to know about their pending layoff as soon as possible, so they can begin pursuing other employment or training opportunities. Workers who lose their jobs due to plant closings should be given enough time to prepare themselves and their families for the future.

To make things fairer for these workers, the New Jersey legislature extended the current worker notification period to 90 days. The bill awaits Gov. Jon Corzine's signature. Of course none of this enough.

The way things stand now, the law does not require companies to pay severance pay when workers are laid off. Some companies pay a little; many pay none. And while the COBRA law requires employers to permit workers to keep their medical insurance for 18 months after lay-off, they must do so at their own expense. And after 18 months, the laid off worker has no insurance at all unless she's lucky enough to find a new job with such coverage.

Finally, the way the law stands now, unless you're in a union, or have a written employment contract, you can be laid off for no reason at all. That's right. After 40 years of loyal service the boss can fire you without any good reason.

So whether it's 60 days notice or 90 days notice, there's an awful lot to fix to make the American worker safe from the trauma of mass lay-offs. The notification act is good, but only as a band-aid.

Of course, New Jersey still needs a policy that will create good jobs.